This invention pertains to a gaming system, and more particularly to a gaming system including a remote control vehicle that may be remotely operated.
Remote control vehicle operations as entertainment have been around in various forms for several decades. Starting with model railroads and extending through today""s radio-controlled stunt cars, users have had the ability to operate vehicles of one form or another without actually getting xe2x80x9cbehind the wheel.xe2x80x9d Remote operation also gives users the ability to experience operating vehicles that they normally would not be able to operate, such as trains and airplanes.
Computers have given users alternative ways to entertain themselves. From the early days of video games, the computer has allowed the user to experience an entirely original environment, with completely alien characters and even different physical laws. Computers also allow users to simulate the experience of remote control operations by placing the user within a simulated environment. There are two primary advantages to computer simulation of the remote control vehicle: first, there is no physical toy that may be damaged, and second, the user sees things as he would if he were sitting behind the controls of the vehicle.
But each of these forms of entertainment has disadvantages. With the remote control vehicle, the user must remain within the line-of-sight (LOS) of the vehicle for the remote control to operate. And the remote control vehicle cannot in any way immerse the user in a different world: the user is limited to interacting with real objects. Computer simulation, on the other hand, requires that the computer generate the entire perspective of the user. Computer simulation cannot take advantage of the real world environment, not even letting the user mix the real world with fictional elements.
The present invention addresses these and other problems associated with the prior art.